IBM Software Group

January 6, 2003 © 2003 IBM Corporation

IBM Software Group

Open Source: A New Mental Model for Software

Paul BuckDirector, IBM Ottawa LabIBM Software Group

IBM Software Group

Open Source | A New Mental Model © 2003 IBM Corporation

Outline

Software Models– Conventional

– Open-source

Major open-source successes My own experience: Eclipse

IBM Software Group

Open Source | A New Mental Model © 2003 IBM Corporation

The Conventional Software Model

Source Code

Source Code CompileCompile

• Copyright

• Trade secret

• Patents

• Restrictive employment agreements

• Copyright

• Trade secret

• Patents

• Restrictive employment agreements

Product: binary code

XYZ Software

• Copy protection

• End-user license agreements

• “Activation”

• Copy protection

• End-user license agreements

• “Activation”

IBM Software Group

Open Source | A New Mental Model © 2003 IBM Corporation

The Conventional Software Model: Development

Formal management structure– Authority rests with management

– People resources controlled by available budget

– All people “on board” have roles

People motivated by some combination of– Work for hire, i.e., pay

– Corporate career path

– Professional pride

Various processes used in industry– Varying degrees of formality/rigidity/control

– Varying quality

IBM Software Group

Open Source | A New Mental Model © 2003 IBM Corporation

The Conventional Software Model: Business Model

Only the vendor who owns the code can– Sell or lease the software (binary form only)

– Sell support

– Exploit knowledge of software internals

– Give preferential access to “friends” (part of the MSFT anti-trust case)

– Control the product’s “ecosystem”

– Control the product’s evolution

Anyone with enough product know-how can – Sell services and education

IBM Software Group

Open Source | A New Mental Model © 2003 IBM Corporation

The Open Source Model

Source Code

Source Code CompileCompile

binary code

Internet

IBM Software Group

Open Source | A New Mental Model © 2003 IBM Corporation

The Open Source Software Model: Developers

Formal management structure replaced by social norms– People resources controlled by interest level and enthusiasm

– Committers: Brutal, public meritocracy

– Self-regulating: committers vote in other committers

People motivated by some combination of– Professional pride / improve the world

– Developers may or may not be working as employees of a company

– Develop reputation to parlay into business opportunity (e.g., consulting)

– Passion for “free software”

Typically led by a small group of “super-programmers”– “Mere mortals” contribute bug reports and fixes

– Some projects have thousands of people contributing bug reports

IBM Software Group

Open Source | A New Mental Model © 2003 IBM Corporation

The Open Source Model: Business Models

Free Software movement: profit from software is “immoral”

Sell – Support

– Services and education

– Enhancements, e.g., easy install, better documentation

– Customization

Level playing field: competitors can’t control

Multi-vendor ecosystem

IBM Software Group

Open Source | A New Mental Model © 2003 IBM Corporation

The Open Source Model: Customer View

No vendor lock-in

Lower risk of depending on a company that fails

Low cost

Reliable software

Excellent informal community support

– More rapid response than from most vendors

– Vendor participation in community

IBM Software Group

Open Source | A New Mental Model © 2003 IBM Corporation

Example: GNU (“Gnu’s Not Unix” )

Richard Stallman and Free Software Foundation (started late ’70s)Build a Unix-like system unencumbered by corporate licenses

“Copyleft” license– Can freely redistribute and produce derivative works, but must make

source for product available– Must inherit “copyleft” in derivative works

Major impact on software community, especially academic – Emacs– GNU compilers– Many programmer tools

Corporations were puzzled and leery in the 80’s and early 90’s– License problematic because of its impact on patents and derivative works– Gradually loosened slightly to allow commercial derivative works

All system vendors other than MSFT now embrace/support GNU

IBM Software Group

Open Source | A New Mental Model © 2003 IBM Corporation

Example: Apache

Started with basic web (http) server Quickly became the dominant http server (2/3rds “share”)

– Extremely reliable

– Performs well

– Free

Corporate reaction (mid-90’s)– IBM embraced

– Killed it’s own http server and incorporated Apache into products– Provided legal advice to incorporate and formulate license– IBM employees participate as (part of) their jobs– Donated significant technology

– Other vendors (e.g., Sun, HP, many smaller players) now participate

Now key player in other web technologies too

IBM Software Group

Open Source | A New Mental Model © 2003 IBM Corporation

Example: Linux

Unix-like operating system

Linus Torvalds built the initial core (early ’90s)

Captured ISPs with its small size, reliability, and zero price

–Rode the Internet phenomenon

Rise (and fall) of Linux distributors, e.g., Red Hat, Suse, VA Linux

Ported to essentially all interesting hardware platforms

–With or without vendor help

IBM embraced and gave it legitimacy in enterprise computing

IBM Software Group

Open Source | A New Mental Model © 2003 IBM Corporation

Flexibility & Flexibility & choice of choice of

deploymentdeployment

Application Application availability &availability &new businessnew business

innovationinnovation

Fastest growing server OSFastest growing server OS

Common application Common application development environmentdevelopment environment

Global adoptionGlobal adoption

Ability to Ability to consolidate onconsolidate on

platform ofplatform ofchoicechoice

Availability of Availability of skillsskills

Enabled across multiple Enabled across multiple hardware platformshardware platforms

Affinity with UnixAffinity with Unix

Effects Benefits

Reduced cost Reduced cost of ownershipof ownership

No SingleNo Single Vendor Vendor

Open Open SourceSource

Standards Standards BasedBased

LowLow Cost Cost

Small &Small & Modular Modular

UbiquityUbiquity

Example: Linux What the Customer Gets

IBM Software Group

Open Source | A New Mental Model © 2003 IBM Corporation

Example: Linux

Now fastest growing operating system

Vendors making significant contributions of people and

technology to make Linux meet enterprise needs

Significant threat to all proprietary Unix systems

– IBM’s AIX, HP’s HPUX, Sun’s Solaris

Microsoft views Linux as major long-term threat to Windows

– Strong support from governments around the world

– China and India are major advocates

– There is no one to “attack”

IBM Software Group

Open Source | A New Mental Model © 2003 IBM Corporation

Eclipse: The Customer Problem

T6 Tn

IDEIBM

Tool

Cust

Tool

Site DeveloperRAS/P

Tuner

Portal

Developer

Adapter

Builder

Design & Analysis

Bus. Logic

Developer

XML

Schemes

LegacyMgmnt

RoleRole

Integrated Integrated App Dev App Dev PlatformPlatform

RoleRole

RoleRole

TaskTask

TaskTask

IBM Software Group

Open Source | A New Mental Model © 2003 IBM Corporation

Eclipse: Establishing a Platform

Challenge– Tools from different companies do not work well together

– Developers have better things to do than integrate tools

– Tool vendors have better things to do than reinvent wheels

Visual Studio is the tools platform in the Windows world No credible platform in the Java world Eclipse

– Designed to be a highly extensible platform

– Plus out-of-box function and quality to attract developers

– Plus endorsement (i.e, products) by some major tool vendors

– Plus open-source

IBM Software Group

Open Source | A New Mental Model © 2003 IBM Corporation

Eclipse: Momentum and Community Building

Eclipse.org established in November 2001– IBM donates software developed at a cost of $40M

– Initial board members: Borland, IBM, Merant, QNX, Rational, RedHat, SuSE, TogetherSoft, WebGain

More than 2.5 Million downloads in first year– Over ~300K developers, companies, or organizations

– 17% Linux downloads, 80% Windows downloads, 3% Solaris

– Number of testers grew 10x from version 1.0 to 2.0 Over 100 open source or freeware plug-in projects

– Visit www.eclipse-workbench.com and eclipse-plugins.2y.net

– In French, visit: www.eclipsetotale.com

– Wiki at http://eclipsewiki.swiki.net

IBM Software Group

Open Source | A New Mental Model © 2003 IBM Corporation

Eclipse: The Pundits Love It

Hot! IBM's Eclipse Seeks to Revive Best-of-Breed Tool Concept

"IBM is first to launch a 'community property, best-of-breed' AD platform to integrate a variety of tools from a variety of vendors ... the implications are not only significant, but far-reaching."

IBM Attempts to Eclipse Competition with Open Source Developer Alliance

"Eclipse will very likely be a quick & cost-effective way of forging alliances in the all-important battle for developers ... using open standards & open source software as the means to gather those developer resources."

Eclipse Will Fuel IBM's Software Might

"IBM’s new Eclipse initiative ... will boost WebSphere’s marketshare and challenge Microsoft and Sun ... a strong move for IBM"

IBM's Eclipse: Aggressively Open, Openly Aggressive

"This is IBM's most audacious open source gambit so far," says James Governor, analyst with IT advisory firm Illuminata, Inc. "The company is driving the development of an open platform that provides many of the underlying services software developers need, bringing tight integration to the tools market. This is not just a framework or set of APIs; it's real code designed to do real work."

I lluminata

"Eclipse is a break from the proprietary pattern, it comes at a critical time in the industry...its a very aggressive move. [IBM] is

betting that opening up the software tools ecosystem will

work to its advantage"

IBM Software Group

Open Source | A New Mental Model © 2003 IBM Corporation

Eclipse: The Pundits Love It

"The name of this new open source initiative is Eclipse, as in overshadowing of Microsoft's proprietary approach ... it

may take a long time, but the open-source movement eventually will accomplish what

the government failed to do .."

"IBM's plans can change the entire

industry. As revolutions go, this

one is a bargin"

"IBM is leading the pack with its new

development tools"

"IBM Aims to Eclipse Tools Market...for Microsoft, Eclipse

presents something of a problem...they will have to content with yet another open source threat on a relatively unprotected flank...

IBM Software Group

Open Source | A New Mental Model © 2003 IBM Corporation

Eclipse: Vendors on the eclipse.org Board

IBM Software Group

Open Source | A New Mental Model © 2003 IBM Corporation

Eclipse: IBM’s Business Model (IBM is not a charity!)

WebSphere Studio WorkbenchWebSphere Studio Workbench

IBM ServerIBM Server& Middleware & Middleware

ToolsTools

WebSphere StudioWebSphere Studio

Partner Tools Partner Tools & Middleware& Middleware

www.eclipse.org

Ultimate goal: bring developers to IBM’s WebSphere e-business platform

IBM WebSphere Studio product– Revenue

– Partner opportunities

– IBM server tools IBM WebSphere Studio

Workbench– Aimed at partners

It’s all about ecosystem